Ratatouille cleans up at Annie Awards
The story of an upwardly mobile Parisian rat with a gourmet appetite ate up 10 Annie Awards, which honour the year’s top achievements in film and television animation.
The Disney and Pixar rodent tale Ratatouille, about a French rat who ends up running a gourmet restaurant, captured trophies for top animated feature, writing and directing for Brad Bird, voice acting for Ian Holm, character design and animation, music, storyboarding, production design and animated video game.
The film headed into the competition with the most nominations, 13 in all, at the gala in Los Angeles on Friday night.
It beat out main competitors Bee Movie, Surf’s Up, Persepolis and The Simpsons Movie.
The Annie Awards are presented by the International Animated Film Society. The winner of the best-picture prize has gone on to win the Academy Award for animated feature every year since it was added as an Oscar category in 2001, with one exception. Last year’s Annie winner, the auto-racing comedy Cars, lost at the Oscars to the penguin musical Happy Feet.
Ratatouille will be battling it out on Oscar night with Persepolis and Surf’s Up.
Persepolis is based on Marjane Satrapi’s bestselling graphic novels about her life as a rebellious little girl growing up in Iran after the Islamic Revolution. Surf’s Up chronicles a teenaged rock-hopper penguin competing in a surfing competition.
Other winners at Friday night’s Annies included:
Animated effects: Deborah Carlson, Surf’s Up.
Animated television production: Creature Comforts America, Aardman Animation.
Animated television production for children: El Tigre, Nickelodeon.
Directing in an animated TV production: Seth Green, Robot Chicken Star Wars.
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